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Events were not supposed to have turned out this way: Stalin is making a comeback in Russia, the Chinese Communist Party controls capitalism in China, Venezuela — once a friend of the United States — is now a neo-Marxist state, and Latin America itself is dominated by communist or far left regimes. When the Berlin Wall was destroyed by jubilant West Berlin youth, the nightmare was believed to be over. The communist true believers, however, are again a threat to humanity — even within the U.S. government. It is a story gets little coverage in the centralized media. Instead of...

Vladimir Putin did not meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week in Moscow, a spokesmen for the Russian prime minister said on Wednesday. Dimitri Peskov told Radio Moscow that Putin had been "busy that day following his pre-prepared schedule, which did not include a meeting with Netanyahu." Peskov, however, did not explicitly deny that a visit had taken place. Earlier Wednesday, a senior Jerusalem official had confirmed that Prime Minister Netanyahu visited Russia on Monday in order to discuss the Kremlin's arms deals with Iran and Syria, and the transfer of Russian military hardware to Hezbollah. Netanyahu's trip...

Mikhail Gorbachev has attacked Vladimir Putin for rolling back democracy in Russia and failing to fight corruption. In an interview with The Times, published today, he criticised Mr Putin over Russia’s failure to convict the killers of prominent Kremlin critics such as the journalist Anna Politkovskaya and the dissident spy Alexander Litvinenko. Mr Gorbachev accused Europe and America of a failure to understand Russia since he started his glasnost and perestroika reforms of the Soviet Union almost a quarter of a century ago. He said that the West seemed more interesting in keeping Russia “on its knees”. He had warm...

For war journalist Scott Anderson, the most confounding part of his recent assignment for GQ magazine to explore the root of terrorist acts in Russia a decade ago wasn't the suggestion of treachery and subterfuge he found. Scott Anderson, a veteran war correspondent Enlarge Timothy Fadek/Polaris Scott Anderson, a veteran war correspondent, says he's disappointed GQ was frightened of circulating his story. "If you're worried about repercussions and you bow to them, you're basically surrendering to the other side." Scott Anderson, a veteran war correspondent Timothy Fadek/Polaris Scott Anderson, a veteran war correspondent, says he's disappointed GQ was frightened of...

Russia, Poland and history. Mr Putin regrets Sep 3rd 2009 From The Economist print edition It is hard to imagine modern Germany haggling with Poland about opening wartime archives, let alone over who started the war. With Russia, it is different. Vladimir Putin’s visit to Gdansk, where a ceremony this week marked the first shots of the second world war in September 1939, was both a step forward and a depressing sign of continuing difficulties. Polish officials struggled to stay polite before the Russian prime minister’s arrival. In June the Russian defence ministry website argued that Poland had caused the...

Putin's 'Polish Syndrome' September 04, 2009 By Vladimir Nadein Ten years of absolute power and 10 years of unlimited sycophancy have not failed to leave their mark on Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. He has completely lost the ability to listen to others or to hear himself. This isn't a problem in Russia, where he controls everything. And it isn't generally a problem in the West, where when people don't fully understand you, they just nod and smile as long as you don't try to take away their morning roll. But Poland is not the West. The West knows communism,...

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is in Poland for events Tuesday marking the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II as Russia fiercely denies blame in causing the war. He plans to hold talks with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and also meet with the prime ministers of the Netherlands, Finland, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Slovenia. Writing in Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper, Mr. Putin condemned the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop treaty as immoral. The pact secretly split the Baltics and parts of eastern Europe between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Historians say it encouraged Germany to invade Poland on September...

Media Malpractice: Among the many encomiums that the mainstream media showered on the late senator from Massachusetts, something was curiously missing: the link between Sen. Ted Kennedy and the KGB.Shortly after the Soviet archives were opened up following the collapse of communism in 1991, Tim Sebastian, a reporter for the London Times, came across a strange memo. It purported to detail how in the 1984 political season Kennedy tried to enlist the aid of the Soviet regime, then headed by former KGB chief Yuri Andropov, to get President Reagan defeated. When we first heard of this, we thought it must...

Russia unveiled the first element of its fifth-generation Sukhoi PAK FA/T-50 fighter during the Moscow MAKS air show, with Tikhomirov's NIIP having exhibited the type's active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar. The newly unveiled unit is intended for integration with Sukhoi's heavyweight fighter prototype, which air force commander Aleksandr Zelin says is due to fly in November or December. The aircraft was shown to President Vladimir Putin in its assembly phase during his May visit to the KnAAPO production plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Tikhomirov says the AESA antenna entered benchtesting in November 2008, and was mated with the radar's other blocks...

Medvedev: blaming Soviets for WWII a 'cynical lie' By STEVE GUTTERMAN (AP) – 6 hours ago MOSCOW — Russia's president defended Moscow's role in World War II before the 70th anniversary of its outbreak, saying in an interview broadcast Sunday that anyone who lays equal blame on the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany is telling a "cynical lie." Dmitry Medvedev's remarks were the latest salvo in Russia's bitter dispute with its neighbors over the war and its aftermath. The Kremlin has launched a campaign for universal acceptance of its portrayal of the Soviet Union as Europe's liberator. In Eastern Europe,...

When Russian Prime Minister Viadimir Putin crossed into Georgia without permission on August 13,2009. it was one more action to test the strength of President Barack Obama. The last time Putin did something like this was when he traveled to South Ossetia, just days after Obama spoke in Moscow.

According to Ria Novosti, General Nicolai Makarov, commander of the Russian armed forces, has said that in excess of 60,000 troops will take part in the exercise. All units of the Leningrad military district are taking part in the Ladoga-2009 exercise, where they are accompanied by several detachments of the Siberian military district, interior troops and border guards, plus the Baltic and Northern fleets.

One of the biggest myths perpetuated by Vladimir Putin's propaganda machine is that during his 10-year rule over Russia, the former president and current prime minister succeeded in "pacifying" the North Caucasus. Nothing could be further from the truth. What we are witnessing today is the start of the third Caucasus war in 15 years, following the two Chechen wars of 1994 and 1999. There was the June 22 attack on Ingushetia's president Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, the recent murders of Chechen human rights activists Natalia Estemirova and Zarema Sadulaeva, and last week's terrorist attack in Nazran, which killed scores and maimed...

Several U.S. researchers in Washington painted a grim picture of the Russian military Aug. 24, saying the former Cold War adversary has embarked on a necessary reform campaign after decades of corruption and shrinking capacity. Two researchers, Stephen Blank of the U.S. Army War College and Dale Herspring of Kansas State University, told a Hudson Institute audience that Russian media and military leaders are widely lamenting the state of Russia’s military, recently brought to worldwide attention by its difficult – albeit ultimately successful – invasion of Georgia a year ago. “The Russians were not ready for that war,” Herspring said....

Moscow (AsiaNews / Agencies) – The Russian Islamic University, inaugurated in Grozny, on August 21 is called Kunta-Haji, in honor the Sufi mystic who in the mid nineteenth century preached non-violence in Chechnya. The ceremony was opened by a video message in which Vladimir Putin, the Russian premier said: "There are three million Muslims in our country and they all consider Russia as their home, their mother country and we welcome the recovery Islamic traditions". The words of the Prime Minister in Moscow echoed those of Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's president, who announced a future for the country without the influence...

The much-trumpeted "reset" of relations between Russia and the U.S. was dealt a slap in the face last week as Moscow went on the offensive against Ukraine and Georgia. After Russian President Dmitri Medvedev waded into Ukrainian politics with barbed criticism of his Ukrainian counterpart's "anti-Russian" policies, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin embarked on a provocative trip to reaffirm support for Abkhazia, the Moscow-backed territory that enjoys de facto independence from Georgia. While Washington insists that it will not recognize a Russian "sphere of influence," the moves by Medvedev and Putin place a question mark over the Obama Administration's ability to...

Moscow.- Russia's Ministry of Justice has adopted a ruling by the Supreme Court that flags with crosses will be considered symbols of extremism, and their display will be banned. The ruling effectively outlaws the flags of Georgia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Dominican Republic and Jamaica, as well as those of 15 states within the Russian Federation.

Moscow, Aug 21 (DPA) A Russian newspaper claimed Friday that suspected pirates who boarded the freighter Arctic Sea were actually agents of the Israeli secret service trying to stop it from smuggling arms into Iran. According to Russian media, the Arctic Sea may have been carrying illegal X-55 cruise missiles destined for Iran hidden among its cargo of lumber. Men acting on behalf of the Israeli Mossad secret service commandeered the ship to divert the weapons away from Israel's regional enemy, the daily Novaya Gazeta said. Citing Moscow publicist Yulia Latynina, the daily pointed to the surprise visit of Israeli...

Seventy years ago Sunday, the Soviet Union signed a pact with Nazi Germany that gave dictator Josef Stalin a free hand to take over part of Poland and the Baltic states on the eve of World War II. Most of the world now condemns the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, but Russia has mounted a new defense of the 1939 treaty as it seeks to restore some of its now-lost sphere of influence. "This is all being rehabilitated because this is now a very lively issue for Russia," said military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer. "This is not about history at all." (snip) The Soviet...

M. Preobrazhensky spent 15 years in the KGB, in the foreign intelligence segment (precisely : technical and scientific espionage, "Directorate T"). He was attached to the Japanese station in the early 80s and spent the rest of his career at KGB HQ in Moscow, where he ended up being the senior adviser on Asia to the deputy head of KGB. Mr. Preobrazhensky defected to the US in 2003. He has since been the author of eight books on Russian intelligence and was lecturer at Columbia, John Hopkins and Georgetown university. His interview - see link

It's really amazing how soon the Obama administration's chickens are coming home to roost. They made a big deal out of finding a "reset" button for U.S.-Russia relations. They wanted to reject what they saw as George W. Bush's truculence over the Russian invasion of Georgia last summer. So they went out of their way to send a message to Russia that they wanted a new beginning in their relations with Moscow. Well, they've gotten it. London's prestigious Financial Times reports that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has sent a tough "ultimatum" to Ukraine's leadership. Medvedev sent his blunt warning in...

The Russian economy risks hitting "a dead end" unless it sees rapid reform, President Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday, in his most damning assessment yet of the country's economic prospects. Speaking amid a severe economic crisis that has plunged the country into a deep slowdown, Medvedev did not spare his words in admitting Russia was largely to blame for its woes. He told Russian political party leaders in the southern city of Sochi that Russia was "treading water" by not implementing reform and needed to urgently change the structure of its export-dependent economy. Medvedev's stark analysis of the crisis contrasts...

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ RF President Dmitry Medevedev has introduced to parliament a bill on reforming the federal law “On Defense�. New Amendments envisage procedures for establishing armed forces’ control beyond Russia’s national territory, President said Monday in Sochi, in a non-official meeting with parliamentary faction leaders. As specified by Kremlin press service, amendments were elaborated in compliance with clause 5 of recommendation appendix, drawn up after President’s February 17 meeting with Federation Council members. They are aimed at “creating a legal mechanism enabling President to effectively use RF armed forces beyond the country's borders.� President will be probably vested with the right...

Russia is grappling with a major public health crisis in which residents are essentially drinking and smoking themselves to death, according to the country’s public health officials. About a million Russians die each year from alcohol- and smoking-related causes -- between 600,000 and 700,000 of those deaths are attributed to drinking alone, Andrei Demin, of Russia’s Public Health Association, told Fox News. “It’s threatening the future of the country,” he said. The problem? Unlike other countries, Russia has refused to levy hefty taxes on cigarettes and alcohol to discourage drinking and smoking. The resulting statistics are staggering: — The average...

If it sounds like Putin and acts like Mussolini it's probably Obama..

Death of Putin Critic Politkovskaya Is Test of Medvedev's Vow to Restore Rule of LawA judge rejected a plea for a fresh investigation into the 2006 murder of Russian investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya, disappointing her family and colleagues who say the search for the truth has become a farce. That means the retrial of three men accused of being low-level accomplices in her murder will proceed against the Politkovskaya family's wishes. The family says it believes there is insufficient evidence to secure credible convictions. A jury acquitted the men in February but Russia's Supreme Court later ordered a retrial. "It...

"Photographs were published yesterday showing the Russian Prime Minister stripped to the waist riding a horse through rugged terrain during a brief holiday in the Siberian region of Tuva. Wearing only green fatigues, his eyes hidden behind reflective sunglasses, Mr Putin also showed his gentler side as he fed the horse from his hand after the ride. Mr Putin, who will be 57 in October, showed off a set of rippling arm muscles as he demonstrated his butterfly swimming stroke. The photos will inevitably trigger mass swooning by women all over Russia — as well as unfavourable comparisons of their...

WASHINGTON — A pair of nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines has been patrolling off the eastern seaboard of the United States over recent days, a rare mission that has raised concerns inside the Pentagon and intelligence agencies about a more assertive stance by the Russian military. The episode has echoes of the cold war era, when the United States and the Soviet Union regularly parked submarines off each other’s coasts to steal military secrets, track the movements of their underwater fleets — and be poised for war. But the collapse of the Soviet Union all but eliminated the ability of the...

Defense officials say two nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines have been patrolling in international waters off the East Coast for several days. The officials tell The Associated Press that while they haven't seen such unusual activity since the Cold War, the military is not overly concerned. They say the Russians have a right to conduct naval exercises and are operating according to international law. U.S. Northern Command would not comment on any details of the Russian submarines movement.

Published: 4:24PM BST 04 Aug 2009 Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, has spent a "holiday" adding to his action man image. Photo: AP The Russian prime minister was photographed engaged in a series of adventurous activities including riding a horse bareback and climbing trees in southern Siberia. In the latest of a series of media stunts Mr Putin was snapped striding through grassy fields wearing ankle high boots, an Indiana Jones style-hat and green fatigues while visiting the remote Russian region of Tuva.

Vladimir Putin has buffed up his action-man image and raised the pin-up stakes among world leaders with another set of bare-chested holiday pictures. Photographs were published today showing the Russian Prime Minister stripped to the waist and riding a horse imperiously through rugged terrain during a brief holiday in the Siberian region of Tuva. Wearing only green fatigues, his eyes hidden behind reflective sunglasses, Mr Putin also showed his gentler side as he fed the horse from his hand after the ride. Mr Putin, who will be 57 in October, showed off a set of rippling arm muscles as he...

On Friday, Fox News host Sean Hannity presented a brief report about Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s plans to criminalize historical “revisionism.” Specifically, Medvedev wants to make “questioning the Soviet victory in World War II” a criminal offense; he also appointed a commission to work towards “counteracting attempts to falsify history that are to the detriment of the interests of Russia.” In the Newsweek piece cited by Hannity, Stalin’s Children author Owen Matthews explains: Russia’s schoolchildren are being indoctrinated with the greatness of Stalin and stories of how the Red Army was welcomed as liberators by the peoples of Eastern Europe....

Putin dives to bottom of world's deepest lake Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Saturday dived to the bottom of the world's deepest lake aboard a mini-submarine, in a highly mediatized stunt unusual even by the standards of the Russian hardman. Putin, wearing special thermal blue overalls, was able to examine the unique flora and fauna of Lake Baikal in Siberia during his four-hour journey underwater aboard the Mir-1 submarine. "I've never experienced anything like it in my life," the prime minister, who served eight years as Russian president, told state television aboard the support ship after resurfacing. "It's a special feeling....

BAIKAL, August 1 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has made a dive to the bottom of the world's deepest lake, Baikal, in the Mir-1 mini-submarine. Putin, clad in overalls for a 4-hour plunge, spoke to journalists on a radio linkup from the deepest point of the lake's southern part 1,395 meters below the surface, saying he was surprised that the water was not transparent and calling it "a plankton soup." In his Saturday's dive, the premier, who on Friday set up a satellite transmitter on a white whale during a visit to Russia's Far East Khabarovsk Territory,...

Riot police in Moscow broke up an opposition rally with arrests and brute force on Friday, detaining at least 30 people. Pensioners, invalids and young people were among those arrested, as hundreds of riot police in blue fatigues obeyed orders to crack down on any show of dissent. The rally, organised by the opposition Other Russia coalition to protest against Vladimir Putin, the prime minister, had been banned by city authorities. "What kind of country is this? They're all bandits," cried Yekaterina Veselovskaya, 60, as riot police dragged off a friend. "We're going back to the Stalinist 1930s." In a...

Russia's new president is trying to show the world a more liberal face, but the body count of murdered human rights activists keeps rising. Being a political critic in Russia is getting more dangerous by the day, and now one prominent human rights organization in Chechnya has decided to close its office. Yet another Russian human rights activist has been silenced in yet another brutal attack. This week unknown gunmen shot anti-corruption activist Albert Pchelintsev in the mouth with rubber bullets, in front of his apartment in the Moscow suburb of Khimki. The 38 year old was seriously wounded in...

Moldovans repeating national elections on Wednesday face a stark choice: vote for the ruling Communist Party and receive loans from their Chinese and Russian backers worth well over a third of national income, or put their faith in the West. The outcome of the vote is too close to call, according to opinion polls and political analysts, though few expect a repeat of the riots and brutal police crackdown that followed April's turbulent elections that were tainted by fraud allegations. Those elections and Wednesday's vote are having an impact well beyond the borders of this small ex-Soviet nation of four...

Meet Marina Kalashnikova: a Moscow-based historian, researcher and journalist. Last August she criticized foreign “experts� for suggesting that a conflict with Moscow will not happen because Russia’s elite is too closely associated with the West. According to Kalashnikova, “The West does not care to wake from the dream of its wishful thinking, even when Moscow turns to … reanimating Stalin’s cult of personality together with the ideology of the Cheka [i.e., the secret police].� I’m afraid that Marina Kalashnikova is right. The West has been dreaming, and the West will suffer the consequences. If the Kremlin likes Stalin, then there...

The abduction and murder of human rights activist Natalia Estemirova in the conflict-ridden Northern Caucasus has been the latest crime to shake Russia's embattled liberal community - and raise the question of whether today's Russia lives not just under an authoritarian regime, but a reign of terror against dissenters. While there are different theories as to the real perpetrators of this vile crime, none are particularly flattering to the Kremlin. On July 15, 50-year-old Estemirova, a teacher, journalist, and single mother of a 15-year-old daughter, was abducted outside her home in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya. Later that day, she...

French President Nicolas Sarkozy was discharged Monday from the hospital where he spent the night after collapsing while jogging. Doctors said his illness was due to heat and overwork and ordered the 54-year-old to rest but prescribed no further medical treatment, his office said. Sarkozy, dressed in a dark suit and tie, walked hand-in-hand with his wife, Carla, from Val de Grace military hospital to his car. He smiled and shook hands with white-clad medical personnel but declined any comment. Medical tests Monday on Sarkozy's heart showed no signs of irregular heartbeat and no long term consequences for the president's...

Joe McCarthy’s anti-communist campaign during the post-war era in the US remain one of the great totemic events in liberal-Left mythology. Every time there is a revival of Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, solemn words are trotted out about how this metaphor for the appalling witch-hunts which ruined careers is a devastating indictment of irrational fear, blah blah blah. Well, not exactly. The point of The Crucible is that there were no witches. But back in the real world, there certainly were spies. A new book, Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America by John Earl Haynes,...

Acknowledging the Deception::by J. R. Nyquist Weekly Column Published: 07.24.2009 Meet Victor Kalashnikov: former KGB officer, scholar, analyst, and writer. He is married to historian and journalist Marina Kalashnikova, the subject of last week’s column. Before the Soviet Union collapsed Victor worked for the KGB in Vienna. After Gorbachev’s bizarre abdication in December 1991, Victor found himself drawn into the Presidential administration of Boris Yeltsin on orders of KGB General Yevgeny Primakov. There he became a research director in the Russian Public Policy Center. “So I turned my attention 180 degrees from Europe to Russia,” Victor explained. “I was quite...

(English-language translation) The government of Venezuela will purchase tanks from Russia to double its fleet and strengthen its armed forces. [Venezuelan] President Hugo Chávez made the announcement amid growing tensions with Colombia over its military agreement with the United States, which would allow troops from that country to operate from Colombian bases. "We are going to bring several new tank battalions in order to double the armored force we presently have....I am not going to pay attention to what the neighbors say, or up north, forget the Yankees," said Chávez in "Hello, Theoretical President", the new version of his Sunday...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the Obama administration considered Russia a "great power" and wanted it to be a strong and prosperous country, in an apparent effort to reassure Moscow that the White House remains committed to efforts to "reset" bilateral relations. Mrs. Clinton made the remarks in response to a question about Vice President Joe Biden's suggestion... that Russia's weakening economy was likely to make it more amenable to cooperate with the West on national security issues. Hillary Clinton said, "We view Russia as a great power." "We view Russia as a great power," Mrs. Clinton said on...

Another Iran Video: Iranian Friday leader aligned with the hard-line regime directing crowd to chant "down with U.S.", Iranian people defiantly respond "Down with dictator", "Down with Russia". Iranian people have blamed Russia for its support of Ahmadinejad/Khamenei. Link here

Q: Since you've come here, you've continued to speak out against Putin and the KGB? A: Yes ... and I am feeling that Americans' attitude toward Russia has begun to change. It is becoming more sober. They're understanding finally what Russia is for them, that it's an enemy. When I came here in 2003 and told the Americans that Putin is an enemy of America, ... they refused this because they were sure that it wasn't so. Even the war in Iraq did not sober them. In Iraq, Russia betrayed America 100 percent and it gave no reaction. And now...

Marina Kalashnikova’s Warning to the West by J. R. Nyquist Weekly Column Published: 07.17.2009 Print Meet Marina Kalashnikova: a Moscow-based historian, researcher and journalist. Last August she criticized foreign “experts” for suggesting that a conflict with Moscow will not happen because Russia’s elite is too closely associated with the West. According to Kalashnikova, “The West does not care to wake from the dream of its wishful thinking, even when Moscow turns to … reanimating Stalin’s cult of personality together with the ideology of the Cheka [i.e., the secret police].” I’m afraid that Marina Kalashnikova is right. The West has been...

Another eyewitness account, emailed to us from a very close friend. Made my way down the west side of Laleh Park, large crowd was gathered around a radio listening to Rafi give the sermons, moved down to Keshavarz Blvd, where people had already started to taunt the bassijis who look like teenagers with Darth Vader helmets that was one size too big for them. The main slogans were “Baradar’e basiji chera Baradr Koshi” (”Brother basiji, why do you kill your brother?”, the speaker after Rafi was urging people to shout “death to America” and “death to Israel” people responded in...

The ninth meeting of the Russian-German Forum, Petersburg Dialogue, which was set up eight years ago under the initiative of then-president Vladimir Putin and then-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, took place in Munich on July 14-16. Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev and Germany’s Angela Merkel held a meeting within the scope of the forum to discuss issues of cooperation between the two countries. Germany has become Russia’s major partner in Europe during the recent years. To which extent are the Russian-German relations strong? Pravda.Ru interviewed one of the leading German experts on Russia, an expert with the German Council for Foreign Politics, Alexander Rar....

Colleagues of Ms. Estemirova say her murder Wednesday is part of a pattern that shows cost of a Kremlin pact with Chechnyan President Ramzan Kadyrov. Moscow - The murder of human rights activist Natalya Estemirova, kidnapped in Chechnya and shot execution-style in neighboring Ingushetia on Wednesday, has shocked the Kremlin and led President Dmitry Medvedev to pledge a full investigation. But leaders of Memorial, the Russian human rights organization that Ms. Estemirova worked with, and other human rights experts here say her death can be added to a fast-growing price tag for a Faustian pact. They say that pro-Moscow strongman...